Hurt - Chapter 2
Shattered
Rated: T
Summary: Raphael is dead. Those were circumstances his brothers would not accept. Along with April, they were going to do whatever it took, even alter time, to get him back. (Continuation of Hurt)
After an intense internal debate with myself, I have decided to continue this fict. As I was writing small sad drabbles, I thought I wanted to finish this idea that had been stewing a long time. Warning, serious angst before anything gets better - prepare for a roller-coaster of feels.
It all started when Raph or April didn't answer their phones near their end of patrol.
Leo asked Donnie to track their t-phones, the devices pinging at an area close to their human friend's residence. The leader had been angry at first thinking the two were slacking off, watching movies or playing video games at her place while the rest of them went out for nightly patrol. Anger quickly turned to worry when they still refused to pick up their phones for over an hour.
Knowing Raph or April weren't ones to shirk their responsibilities, he decided something had to be done; with Donnie and Mikey in tow, they set out to retrieve the two. On the way across town, the blue-banded leader's anger returned with a vengeance, expecting to see the pair goofing off, but a little part of him felt something else...
...but Leo never expected this...
First thing he noticed was the dead human foot soldier; a very familiar weapon embedded deep into bloodstained flesh. The ball of dread that lodged itself firmly in his throat was ignored for the third time that hour as he walked closer to the small mumbling noises coming from an adjacent alley.
Leo saw red.
The sticky substance tacky under his feet as his blue eyes scanned the images in front of him.
The dread he felt when neither April or his hotheaded brother never returned from patrol and refused to pick up their phones erupted into full fledged panic as he took in the two missing occupants; one prone and still upon his back, the other laying partly on top of him mumbling incoherent sounds.
He went numb.
It was so unbelievable that he felt as if he was watching all of these events through eyes that weren't his. The vantage point didn't dissuade from what he was currently seeing.
Leo's younger red-banded sibling was unnaturally still. Skin that was normally a rich emerald green appeared grayish and devoid of any semblance of life. And the blood...there was just so much blood...
He didn't hear the heartbreaking wail of his youngest brother. Didn't even flinch as his mind screamed at him to move, to access his brother's injuries, to find the source of the blood to stop it, but his body refused. The numbness flowing through his system as he watched in shock as all of these events take place.
"Raphael! April!" Donnie screamed, his shock at the scene put aside to run to his prone brother and his crush. He fell to his knees next to the redhead, pulling at her to remove her arms from his brother's neck.
April's eyes suddenly opened, her retina's mere pinpricks as she sat up, looked down, then proceeded to scream, her body shaking before she slumped breathless atop Raphael - clinging to his form even in unconsciousness.
Donnie threw a helpless glance over to Leo, but the leader didn't move. His eyes were glazed. About to scream at him to help, Mikey was suddenly next to him, pulling April from his prone brother.
Once the redhead was pressed against Michelangelo - the world around them went still.
Without April's support, Raphael's head had fallen back and revealed the source of the blood him and Mikey were kneeling in.
Donnie tried and looked at the wound from a strictly unemotional basis, going through prognosis of what a wound entailed, but that didn't happen. A tremor ran through his body as he frantically pressed two fingers to his lifeless brother's pulse point. He'd never been much for religion, but right now, he fervently prayed for any sign he'd be proven wrong. A sign that his hotheaded brother was still here...
Donatello waited in vain...
Pressing fingers deeper hoping he was mistaken, he'd also placed a hand over his brother's still plastron in utter denial of this hellish reality he'd been thrust into. This hell he wanted no part of. The intellectual part of him told him it was too late, that there was no conceivable way Raphael could be alive and even informed him he'd been dead for over an hour, but yet everything else inside of him told it wasn't possible.
Donnie never feared for Raphael.
While him and his hotheaded brother weren't particularly close, Donnie knew Raphael was too strong and street smart even though he'd never tell him that, to get himself into these situations. Raphael was reckless, but he wasn't stupid. Raphael was strong - stronger than all of them. The situations and circumstances they'd been in before were a testament to that fact. But even when it seemed the whole world was against them, his brother faced them down with nothing more than a smirk. In all these years of being the first to jump in the fray, setting off the traps and holding up the back, Raphael had always managed to come out okay - he'd always ended up banged up and bruised...but alive... But as he stared down at his brother's body, this was a reality the genius terrapin didn't understand. It was a simple patrol. Just Raphael and April to give her a little test run - and somehow, the strongest of all of them...ends up dead...
That's why none of this made sense.
Finally, he pulled his fingers away from the still pulse point, gently cradling his brother's head in his lap. Internally debating and asking why this had to happen and wondering how the hell any of them would ever recover from this... The tears stayed at bay for now as he glanced back over to Mikey, who stared at him for answers. Blue eyes begging him to give him a positive diagnosis, to just tell him Raphael would be okay... Donnie prided himself on being able to fix anything - heal anyone. But now, the genius who'd always found a way...couldn't never fix this...
Donnie, the grief rising and clogging his throat, wanting desperately to console Mikey and bring Raphael back from the dead and they could all go home and everything would be alright, sadly shook his head and tried to ignore the screams that came from the youngest brother's mouth and crumbled away any remaining silence around them.
Mikey's eyes shone with tears, the warm tracks leading down his face as he pulled April from his brother's plastron. He'd been anxious ever since he'd called Raphael's phone earlier that night to ask his brother what toppings he wanted on his pizza. Leaning on the kitchen counter full of cut veggies and various "other" toppings, Mikey's smile fell when the red-masked brother didn't immediately answer like he always did. He pulled the phone away from his face and stared at his brother's picture as he ended the call before the voicemail message had a chance to finish.
That's weird. The only thought going through the youngest brother's head.
Shrugging it off, knowing his brother would return his call as soon as possible, he'd topped his own pizza with marshmallows, macaroni, mushrooms, and mill worms. All his favorite 'M' toppings. His smile plastered back on his face, he couldn't help but keep glancing back at his phone, waiting for the familiar ringtone that prompted him to know his brother was calling him back.
An hour later, the pizzas were forgotten in lieu of pacing in the main room, calling April and Raphael's phone over and over again. His foot tapping nervously on the concrete as nothing more than sheer dread and panic fluttered relentlessly through his system.
It wasn't until Leo walked into the room and informed him they were going out to find them that he knew it was serious.
Butterflies were running rampant through his stomach as he got in the ShellRaiser. His eyes glued to where Donnie had the computer up to track their phone signals. His heart was lodged into his throat as he tried to calm his breathing.
"What do you think they're doing, Donnie?" he asked suddenly, knees bouncing nervously up and down.
"I'm really not sure, Mike. It's strange to say the least, but don't worry. It's probably nothing." Donnie said, giving the orange-banded turtle a gaped tooth smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.
Mikey just nodded, eyes straying back to the screen as he swallowed down the lump in his throat. "Yeah... Probably nothing..."
Nothing.
Baby blue eyes stared at the images in front of him, those moments of dread returning with a vengeance. This couldn't be happening... It was just too nightmarish and surreal for it to possibly be reality. Any moment, he'd wake up and it would all be a dream...it just had to be...
Because, there was his big brother - the same one he saw just hours ago when they were watching a movie together - was now lying so incredibly still in a puddle of rust-colored blood. His mind wouldn't dare process the image at first. It was only when Donnie screamed their names that his mind caught up to a reality he wanted nothing to do with. He jumped upon seeing April suddenly reanimate and scream before collapsing atop his prone brother yet again.
Leo still didn't move, so Mikey had no choice but to help Donatello.
After April had been pulled away was when Mikey prayed this was all a nightmare. The cut was deep and already crusted with drying blood and Raphael still had yet to move. Everything in his body screamed at him to wake up - to get out of this nightmare. Tears he wasn't aware of were leaking out of his eyes as he stared at Raph - begging his big brother to get up, to open his eyes...anything...
Watching in bated breath as Donnie checked for life - it seemed like a lifetime had passed before his older brother's brown eyes met his. Mikey began shaking uncontrollably at the sadness and grief contained in his eyes - things Donnie was usually so good at masking were clear for the world to see.
A shake of his head had Mikey careening into a pit of despair where he believed there would never be an end... He screamed into the night, tears streaming down his face as he collapsed into his brother's still chest. Begging for Raphael to wake up...
...but he never did...
The scream of Mikey shook Leo out of his shock, the sound was one he'd never heard and wished instantly to never hear again. Little did he knew it was only the beginning. Finally, his feet moved towards the small group surrounding his red-banded brother's prone body. Without words, he looked at Donnie. His genius brother was quiet, shaking fingers gingerly caressing Raphael's still face.
Leo wanted to break down - he wanted to scream...but he didn't.
Instead, he kneeled next to Donnie and gestured to the shell raiser at the end of the alley.
Donnie nodded and began to instantly obey the leader, who gently began to gather up Raphael's body, valiantly ignoring the squelch of tacky blood as he lifted him into his arms. The blue-banded turtle was silent as he began carrying his brother to the van, completely droning out the sound of Donnie speaking to Mikey and helping the youngest brother with April.
Leo dared not look down. He didn't dare to see his brother lying so still in his arms. The image was not one he wanted to remember. None of this was. In a perfect world, he'd wake up tomorrow morning and Raph would be there as if nothing had happened. But this wasn't a fairytale. This was cold, harsh reality - questions going unanswered - the dreaded why always rearing its ugly head... If anything, it just made Leo more determined to get to the bottom of this even if it killed him. He needed to know what happened to his brother...
Anger instantly filled in any of the grief he may have felt. What Leo wanted was answers - answers he knew only April could answer.
